Germany's first liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal to be built in Brunsbuettel in the north of the country has signed up multinational oil and gas company Shell as its first major customer, according to a joint statement published on Wednesday.
Shell and the company operating the LNG terminal have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) stipulating that Shell would "make a long-term booking of a substantial part of the Brunsbuettel terminal's capacity for the import of LNG," according to the statement.
The deal is a "key step in contributing to security of supply in Germany in the near term as well as more widely in Europe," said Fabian Ziegler, managing director of Shell in Germany.
Both parties were currently working towards a binding agreement in terms of the scope and duration of their partnership and "hope to complete it as soon as possible," the statement said.
At the beginning of March, the German state-owned development bank KfW, the Dutch natural gas infrastructure and transportation company Gasunie and German energy company RWE signed an MoU to jointly build the country's first terminal for the import of LNG.
KfW is to acquire 50 percent of the shares in the LNG terminal on behalf of the German government, according to the Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK). Gasunie is to operate the facility.
The terminal would have an annual regasification capacity of eight billion cubic meters and would offer the possibility of importing gas directly to the German market from regions that are not accessible via gas pipelines, according to the BMWK.
"In this way, the project will improve Germany's energy security and help north-western Europe to become less dependent on imports of gas through pipelines," the BMWK noted.
Editor: Kelly
